Sea & Sunshine

Last week in a bid to capture the last piece of summer I headed down to a magical little place on the north coast of Cornwall called Crantock. We were incredibly lucky with the weather & had a wonderful week consisting of lazy days on the beach, surfing, picnics & lots of wine & fresh seafood in the sunshine.

The long drive down the motorway boded well for the weather ahead, as blue skies & fluffy white clouds stretched ahead of us the whole way down.

The first thing we did was head down to the beach for afternoon tea in the sand dunes.

That feeling when your bare feet first step into the soft sand. Amazing. Living in the city I don't think I'll ever stop appreciating this.

Postcard-perfect English seaside. Windbreaks, beach cricket & little dots of people swimming amongst the waves.

I couldn't resist going in the sea after everyone told me how warm it was. Sans wetsuit lets just say that it was refreshing.

The next day was the best weather of the whole week. One of those idyllic days where you could easily be in the South of France. Perfect blue skies, flat turquoise sea & warm balmy sunshine.

The walk down Crantock beach & round the headland to our favourite beach round the next cove. This walk & beach is absolutely filled with memories for me as I spent every summer here growing up. Its maybe my favourite place in the world. On a day like this (in my opinion) even a stretch of white Fjian sand doesn't compete.

I love the contrast of green hedgerows & wild flowers with the bright blue sea.

This point is where you come round the headland from Crantock & get the first glimpse of Polly Joke. The views from up here of the crystal clear water & rocky shoreline are amazing.

 

 Three generations.

After a gorgeous day on the beach, we walked round to the Bowgie which has a beer garden with stunning views overlooking Crantock beach. Salty hair, sandy feet, sunwarmed skin & an ice cold beer- the best feeling ever!

 

One of my favourite parts of the holiday was coming down to the beach everyday before anyone else had got up & doing a workout with the morning sun shining down on the beach. I did a combination of running along the sea & headland, strength circuits on the hard sand & sprints up the soft sand dunes. It was really challenging as I'm not used to running on such mixed terrain but such a fantastic workout, my legs felt so much stronger by the end of the week. Followed each day by my perfect post-workout breakfast, avocado on toast & orange juice.

 

       

On Wednesday we walked across the beach to the little shop selling fresh lobsters & crab caught the same morning. We had them that evening with lots of locally grown veg & prosecco. 

Soaking up some vitamin D in the garden. I love lazy mornings just reading & chilling out after a hard workout on holiday. It feels like you deserve to do nothing for a little while.

The last day at The Scarlet Hotel, an amazing luxury eco hotel about an hours drive away from Crantock. I want to live here! The hotel was so beautiful it was the perfect end to our holiday.

Sorry for the picture heavy read- if you made it this far well done! I'll be popping up another couple of posts on some of the amazing restaurants & shops we visited in Cornwall this week, so if you enjoyed this one keep an eye out for them.

Happy Friday, Harriet x